Ireland was exporting food during the potato famine, which isn’t a sign that markets were functioning properly at the time and that government policy was in part to blame.

Bengal was somewhat wealthy and had a decent industrial base before the British took over the region. The whole Indian subcontinent went through a reverse in industrialization under the British as the British sought to destroy local economic competition and monetize resources in India.

There were significant famines under communism with links to the government, but the British have a lot of blood on their hands.